HARTFORD — Following the recent passage of a major housing bill, the Housing Committee is looking to tackle homelessness and renter quality-of-life issues in the 2026 short legislative session.
Housing co-Chair Antonio Felipe, D-Bridgeport, an ardent supporter of the first housing bill vetoed by Gov. Ned Lamont in June, said this week that the latest signed bill is a step in the right direction for affordable housing and that arguments that the legislation takes away local control aren’t true.
The 104-page bill had no Republican support from either chamber, in large part because the GOP argued it would prioritize state planning over local control.
“I do still hear people say that we are somehow attacking local control, that we are taking the decisions away from people and planning boards,” Felipe said. “These are all plans that need to be created and approved by the municipalities. They have the final say. … It’s important for people to understand when they are coming up with their numbers as to how many [affordable housing] units need to be built up, these municipalities make that decision themselves even though [the Office of Policy & Management] and their council of governments [COGs] will have input and be able to mediate with them.”
The COGs working with their constituent towns are now tasked with divvying up housing goals over the next five years, taking into account local constraints like demographics and sewer infrastructure.
Felipe said the bill’s passage was “critically important” to making housing “a little more equitable. … There’s a logjam of housing [now] … being taken up by folks that may have more middle-class income that would be better suited for some middle housing opportunities.”
However, Felipe admitted that enacting many of the bill’s measures — such as timelines for towns to create housing plans — could take time.
“That’s more for OPM and the [Lamont] administration to figure out,” he said. “… We are just giving them the tools, but they have to implement the law.”
Other provisions in the wide-ranging bill include an expanded role for Fair Rent Commissions, and lowering the cap from 24 to 16 units for multifamily housing exempted from local parking requirements. The bill also caps parking requirements for larger developers and allows developers to further lower requirements by submitting a detailed study.
As co-chair of the 19-person Housing Committee, Felipe said he will now focus on homelessness and renters for the upcoming session.
“Even though the housing bill was a huge thing, we are still in a housing crisis and it’s multifaceted,” he said. “It has to deal with the homeless population and it has to do with the plight of the modern renter and the rise in home prices, especially in a state as well off as Connecticut. … We are trying to tackle it from all angles.”
Felipe noted many working people with children are on the cusp of homelessness. Many in his home city of Bridgeport, he said, cannot afford paying thousands of dollars upfront for the first month and the security deposit needed to get an apartment.
Felipe, who said he has experienced various levels of poverty throughout his life, said Bridgeport has previously helped pay for people’s first month of rent and security deposits.
“If we were able to help people kind of bridge that gap before they become homeless, rather than serving them after they are officially given that [homeless] designation. … Instead of spending $4,000 [on rent], maybe you can spend $1,200 to get this family through the month, keeping them housed and making sure they do not hit that system [of homeless designation] and all the costs associated with somebody being on the street never comes to fruition,” he said.
Felipe said many in the GOP “are skewed toward [favoring] landlords and developers [more than tenants].
Landlords are not allowed to evict an individual without reason according to Connecticut law, but they are allowed to not renew a lease, known as a no-fault eviction.
Felipe said he has tried to get rid of no-fault evictions, as several other states have done. He also said evictions should not stay on a tenant’s record.
Meanwhile, State Sen. Rob Sampson, R-Wolcott, a landlord for 15 years and a ranking member on the Housing Committee, said current laws are tilted toward tenants and that he has a different approach to addressing landlord/tenant issues.
“I’d like to see a change in direction on the way we treat property providers [landlords],” he said. “ … Ideally, I want to see less government intervention and allow the market to solve the problems.”
Sampson said “most of the housing providers that I know don’t list their properties publicly anymore because the rules are just against them. This is a very hostile state [for landlords].”
Sampson added that “landlords don’t have the true ability to determine who their tenants are. The laws are very, very skewed to basically force them to accept tenants they wouldn’t otherwise accept. They can’t negotiate fair terms because they are limited by restrictions placed in our laws. … It’s extremely difficult to run a successful business as a landlord.”